Memory and learning

Research studies have shown that for children and adults with Down syndrome, working memory skills are more delayed than would be expected in relation to their general cognitive abilities or mental age.

Working memory is the immediate memory system used in everyday activities such as listening to another speaker, reading, doing mental arithmetic, recalling a shopping list or a telephone number. It is important in supporting learning in the classroom as well as most everyday mental activities. The working memory system can be considered in terms of 3 main components, a visual short term memory store for holding visual information, a verbal short term memory store for holding spoken information and an information processing component called a central executive.

The capacity of each of these three components can be measured and typically their capacities increase with age during childhood. There is a link between changes in verbal short-term memory capacity and speaking rate in typically developing children. There is evidence to suggest that the verbal working memory system plays an important role in learning to talk, with possible influences on the ability to discriminate speech sounds and to store the sound patterns of words. This could affect word learning and speech clarity.  Working memory is also important in learning to read.

Research

Can training improve working memory?

The charity's research in the area of memory has focused on working memory, starting with a study in 1990 designed to find out if working memory skills could be improved by training^[1,2].

The results of this work were mixed. It was possible to improve memory performance with training and visual short term memory improved more than verbal short term memory. For most children the gains were not sustained over time^[3]. However, for a small group of the children, who were in inclusive education classrooms, the training gains were sustained and built on over a four year period^[4].

This could be for a number of reasons including the fact that their Learning Support Assistants did the initial training with them, they were receiving daily literacy instruction and in better language environments as the rest of the study children were in special education classrooms.

In a second training study, a computer programme designed to improve memory skills showed promising results for school age children^[5].

Impact

The charity's work on working memory and the methods used in the training have been shared through the training and publications of the charity. The Trust's first research in the area stimulated further research in other Universities. Trust staff have drawn on the information on the relative weakness of verbal short-term memory in designing adapted methods for teaching and learning for children with Down syndrome with positive long-term outcomes.

Education

The charity has published 1 book, 7 papers in refereed journals, 6 articles in other publications and presented 8 papers peer-reviewed national and international conferences.

References

1. Broadley, B (1994) Teaching short-term memory skills to children with Down syndrome. PhD Thesis. University of Portsmouth.
2. Broadley, I., MacDonald, J., & Buckley, S. J. (1994). Are children with Down's syndrome able to maintain skills learned from a short-term memory training programme? Down's Syndrome: Research and Practice. 2. 116-122.
3. Laws, G. MacDonald, J., Buckley, S.J. & Broadley, I. (1995) Long-term maintenance of memory skills taught to children with Down's syndrome. Down's Syndrome Research and Practice 3 (3) 103-109.
4. Laws, G., Buckley, S.J., Bird, G., MacDonald, J. & Broadley, I. (1995). The influence of reading instruction on language and memory development in children with Down's syndrome. Down's Syndrome: Research and Practice. 3. (2) 59-64.
5. Soloman, N. (2000). The Effectiveness of a Computer Aided Memory Training Programme in Children with Down Syndrome. Undergraduate project. Department of Psychology, University of Portsmouth.

A full list of publications related to work in this area is available.